One of the more electrifying players the NBA has ever seen, point guard Steve Francis had one of the unlikeliest paths to becoming a household name. Born in one of the roughest areas of Washington D.C., Francis had to claw and scratch for every single thing he’s earned in his lifetime.
Now, the 41-year-old Francis has decided to write a Players Tribune piece illustrating his rise to the NBA, starting with his tumultuous and unforgiving childhood in the nation’s capital during the heart of the crack cocaine epidemic.
Francis described how his love for basketball began to materialize when he got his first job as a “phone boy” for local drug dealers at just 10-years-old.
Back then, D.C. was a 65-square-mile box of drugs, girls, guns, fights and people just trying to make it out any way possible. My mother was a nurse. My stepfather was a garbage collector. We had 18 people living in a three-bedroom apartment, and food stamps weren’t cutting it. So when I was a little kid, I was out on the corners with my friends, trying to hang with all the older guys, trying to make some pocket money so I could buy some Now and Laters or something.
When I was 10 years old, I got my first job as a phone boy…
There wasn’t anything to do, so to pass the time I used to shoot a basketball into the top of the phone booth. We ripped off the roof, and there was just enough room for a ball to squeeze through, but it was a square, so you had to swish it perfect with a real high arc, and even if you did, it used to rattle in against the sides of the booth.
I’d be out there all night … crossover, crossover, step-back jumper, dddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-rat-tat-tat-tat.
I shot a million jumpers on that phone booth.
Along with his upbringing, Steve Francis touched on a number of other subjects such as his nonexistent high school career and his rocky transition from junior college to major Division I basketball at the University of Maryland.
Francis went on to be drafted second overall by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1999 NBA draft and enjoyed a rock-solid playing career, including three All-Star appearances. Francis didn’t play a game for Vancouver and was instead traded to the Houston Rockets where he played out his prime years alongside names such as Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Yao Ming.
Even with the odds stacked against him in nearly every way, Francis was able to persevere and make a name out of himself from a place not many make it out of. As for the unlikeliness of his rollercoaster journey to the NBA? Francis summed up just how improbable his rise was, with him being drafted in the exact same city he escaped from.
Just think about this….
At 18, I’m selling baggies on the corner in Takoma Park, getting robbed at gunpoint.
At 22, I’m getting drafted into the National Basketball Association, shaking David Stern’s hand.
Guess where the draft was held that year? Washington, D.C.
How the hell do you explain that?
